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165.
Night Shifts To The Factory.
An original handbill featuring artwork by Linder Sterling announcing the fourth concert at ‘The Factory at the Russell Club’ in Manchester, June 9, 1978. The event was headlined by Joy Division, their first concert since the release six days earlier of their first record, “An Ideal For Living”, their first appearance at Tony Wilson’s new club, and only their fifth performance under their new name. Support was provided by The Tiller Boys (a group formed by Pete Shelley in parallel with Buzzcocks), and, though not listed on the handbill, The Durutti Column (their third gig). The show was also one of the four concerts featured on Peter Saville’s “Use Hearing Protection” poster (FAC 1).
Printed in black on white paper stock. 29.7x21cm.
The handbill appears as the first illustration in Linder’s exhibition catalogue, “Woman/Object” (item #166), the only concert handbill included, and again as the only concert handbill featured in Jon Savage’s oral history of Joy Division, “This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else” (Faber & Faber, 2019). In it, recollections of the concert include those from Malcolm Whitehead (maker of a contemporary film on Joy Division), who recalls that “They came on - there was nobody there because they were on very early - and they were absolutely stunning. I can remember it, but not in my head, in my stomach, and it was that power, it was like ‘This is what I’ve always wanted from a band’. I was drained after seeing them”, while another member of the audience that night, Ian Curtis’s friend Iain Grey, remembers that “It was beyond what the Sex Pistols did… it was just unbelievable… it was otherworldly… totally inspired and hypnotic.”
Tiny, unobtrusive crease to upper edge, o/w a Fine copy of a rare handbill, and an early example of Linder’s artwork for an equally early concert by Joy Division.
Provenance: The Tony Wilson Archive.
